Black Rock by Mus Architects

Black Rock is a single-family house project designed by Mus Architects in 2018, covers an area of 260m2 (ground floor 168m2 + first floor 92m2) and is located in Bielsko-Biała, Poland. Photography by Tomasz Zakrzewski.

The main idea was to create something different and original. Not just a single-family house, but an abstract form. We wanted to create a building that refers to the mountainous area, a house that seems to be a result of tectonics and not design processes. This thought was the starting point of the project and the frame that kept the space composition in check.
Therefore, we tried to design and implement the concept of a space by escaping the standards associated with single-family houses. We wanted this house to emeryt like an erratic boulder embedded in a mountain slope, not an architectural form with walls, windows and a roof.
“Black Rock” originates from the topography of mountainous terrains. “The Rock” is not a cuboid, a cube or a classic house with a gable roof. It is an abstract multifaceted solid without obvious division into walls and a roof
In the south, the house opens up to the garden, the sun and the view of the Beskids (mountains). The southern wall is high and includes openings such as glazing, terrace and loggia, which provide the panoramic view. The northern facade mostly consists of a roof slope falling to the plot border – the house’s wall is low and closed here.